**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "A gifted writer . . . explores the
bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish
American immigrant experience."--***USA Today
*
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and
glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers,
patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the
financial security and material comforts provided by their father's
prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her
younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both
sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn't be more
different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a
true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and
carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled
away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the
girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find
Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on
the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese
countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the
Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh
chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married,
brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace
American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist
witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and
rules.
At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are
inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection,
but like sisters everywhere they also harbor petty jealousies and
rivalries. They love each other, but each knows exactly where to drive
the knife to hurt the other the most. Along the way they face terrible
sacrifices, make impossible choices, and confront a devastating,
life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this
astounding new novel hold fast to who they are: Shanghai girls.
Praise for Shanghai Girls
"A buoyant and lustrous paean to the bonds of
sisterhood."**--*****Booklist
"A rich work . . . as compulsively readable as it is an enlightening
journey."--Denver Post
